Food, Faith, and Life (Eat, Pray, Love was already stolen)

Invasion of DeadLife Nightmare, Part 11

The blue-eyed warrior clan matriarch inspected the field for the meeting. She was awestruck at the sight.

Tucked in one corner, her songbird was in animated discussion with other minstrels and troubadours. In another, the alchemists interacted with each other and alchemists from the next town over.

The female Chaos God devotee was conversing with the brown-eyed Chaos God follower. He was as chiseled and godlike as ever; his lifebound partner had the kind of muscled legs most females longed to wrap around themselves, except he was obviously deeply devoted to the Chaos God follower.

She heard her former fighting troop before she saw them. They were still active and boisterous; none wanted the peace and security of early retirement that she did. Two of her green kids now no longer kids were talking with some warriors as well as Temple of Peace members. The War God followers also congregated.

The matriarchs all gathered without toddlers and children. There were a multitude of diverse healers. And some were just curiosity seekers.

She felt queasy. She’d rather be on campaign, gutting a meadow hart for nightmeal, than here speaking to so many people. However, she knew the problem they faced required leadership. She wasn’t the best, and she would happily let anyone with skill replace her.

She took a deep breath,

Attention please. Quiet, quiet.

Thank you all for coming. I am honored that you all are concerned about our town.

We face a problem of unknown source, size, signs, end results. I and my healer friends have worked to do some initial research beyond what we shared in the letter inviting you. This meeting is to share what we’ve learned and develop our plan for solving the problem.

Each healer will speak, describing what we’ve learned and what their fields will do to solve the problem. I will follow.

Some initial rules for this meeting:

Respect everyone. The problem is too big for any one person to solve it.

There is no one right god or goddess at this time. If you need to invoke your deity, please do so outside the common meeting.

Share your stories, music, and sacred texts. We all have different ethnic and worship backgrounds; there may be a helpful pattern.

No idea is too moon crazed or nightmare created to at least openly discuss.

At the end, we’ll remind everyone of their next effort, dismiss, and plan to meet again in another four moon cycles.

If you cannot follow these rules, leave now.

About half the audience left. The matriarch expressed gratitude interiorly to the War God; the fewer chaotic people to manage, the better the effort could progress.

Before I yield the floor to my blue-eyed frame-healer friend, let me discuss where we are. Four moon cycles ago, a green-eyed acolyte of the Temple of Peace was found disheveled, crumpled in a ball, and unable to speak. Because of some of the verifiable outlander rumors, we believe a drug called DeadLife Nightmare was involved. Forced union is also possible. Although this is the first it’s in our town, the borders are getting overwhelmed.